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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  December 4, 2012 11:00am-1:00pm PST

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wonderful rest of your day. i'm brooke baldwin. the question we're asking here, is bashar al assad, is he bluffing as fears grow his regime will unleash chemical weapons in syria? we're digging on what the sarin gas could do and of course where it is coming from. but first, the president has a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff. but republican house speaker john boehner dismisses it as, and i'm quoting, la la land. the republicans offered their proposal, that happened about 24 hours ago. the white house quickly labels it as nothing new. business as usual, right? so how do we move beyond this stalemate in washington? we heard from the president, just a short time ago. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin joins me now, jessica, the president spoke out, sat down in an interview with bloomberg tv, and in listening to the interview, did you hear any clues toward a possible compromise here? >> reporter: not new clues, brooke. the president laid down the marker that we heard from the
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white house consistently, which is they aren't moving until they hear the republicans agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest. listen to what the president had to say. >> i think that, you know, we have the potential of getting a deal done, but it is going to require what i talked about during the campaign, which is a balanced responsible approach to deficit reduction that can help give businesses certainty and make sure the country grows. and unfortunately the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. he talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues, but he says he's going to do that by lowering rates. when you look at math, it doesn't work. >> reporter: so unbalanced approach is the white house's nice way of saying you got to be kidding me. jay carney used the phrase in the briefing just now that the proposal from the republicans was a bunch of magic needs and fairy dust and the current
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standoff is continuing with neither side talking today, brooke. >> magic beans, fairy dust, la la land, it is laughable but not. it is serious stuff that affects every one of us come january 1st, 28 days to go. we know some of the reporting from dana bash on the hill, there are no formal talks going on. the president insists in speaking in this bloomberg interview, he does speak to speaker boehner all the time that the meetings are not what matter. what have you, jessica yellin what have you learned in your reporting about possible talks between the white house and the gop? >> reporter: well, first of all, i'll tell you there was a christmas party at the white house last night where members of congress came to have festivities and stand in line. they're welcome to stand in line and greet the president. and get their picture taken. so speaker boehner chose not to stand in line and shake hands with the president, first lady, get his picture taken. so they did not have interaction and any conversation.
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so now republicans say that was in no way meant to be any kind of spurning of the president, it was a social event, he just didn't want to talk politics last night or whatever it is. still, it is noteworthy that after that last night, there is no talking today, it would seem the white house says that their door is open, their call line is open. bottom line here, brooke, the white house is drawing a firm line, which is they are waiting for the republicans to come off this position that they won't raise rates. and the republicans are holding firm in saying they're not coming off this position. it is a bit of a face-off, a blinking contest, to see who is going to blink first. >> we'll talk about some possible blinking with both a democrat and a republican in the house. jessica yellin, thank you very much. i do want to switch gears and talk about something we have been talking about for 18, 19 months now, syria. the world is watching. those were president obama's words for the syrian president. a stern warning for bashar al
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assad, the man who many fear may be about to unleash chemical weapons on his own people. >> today i want to make it absolutely clear to assad and those under his command, the world is watching. the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable. >> this warning here after a u.s. official tells cnn that syria has begun mixing chemicals that could be used to make the deadly gas sarin. bob bear, i'll bring you in, cnn contributor, former cia officer. welcome back. before we talk about the specifics of sarin, let me just throw this at you. is it possible at all that this man, this mad man, bashar al assad, is bluffing? >> oh, i don't think he's
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bluffing. we have to consider what he represents and that's a very small community, which feels under threat. it thinks it will be destroyed by sunni fundamentalists if it loses damascus or any other big cities. they have their backs to the wall. they say among themselves that when it comes to their lives or killing the rebels they will kill the rebels. in other words, yes, they will use the sarin, i've been dealing with the people for 30 years, they're almost a cult. what seems to us completely irrational decision, they're capable of. i don't know whether they have reached this point or not, but if things get bad enough in syria, i have no dowd they'll use it. >> on this sarin gas, i was reading about it, apparently there are two key components that make this gas and they're held separately, kept separately. you mix them together, it makes for a very potent formula. what kind of damage can sarin gas inflict?
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>> well, if it was artillery shell were dropped in a neighborhood, in southern damascus, it would kill people in -- maybe 10,000 people in the kill radius. >> just like that? >> sarin in fact is a liquid. it would -- it is persistent and would stay on -- stay in the area, it takes a long time to clean up. it is very dangerous. and it is extremely lethal. as lethal as a small nuclear weapon. >> if you just -- bob, curious, if you came into contact with sarin gas, one single drop of it what would it do to you? >> it would kill you, immediately. >> a drop of sarin gas. >> it's that dangerous. it's much worse than mustard gas or any of the more conventional chemical weapons. it is a binary agent, very sophisticated. it is meant to be fired -- >> how do they get it? >> the syrians build it locally. and, by the way, keep in mind
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that the president is not exaggerating this threat. we know for a fact that the syrians have very sophisticated chemical weapons, which are meant for -- meant for israel, but they can also be used against the local population. >> you talk about syria, talk about how you've been covering this and i shouldn't say covering, were involved for many decades and when i think about this, i think back to 1982 and hama and i think i heard you say last night you were there. to let everyone know this is when bashar al assad's father, thousands of people were killed, roads were flattened, is this the kind of thing where you could see bashar al assad come in and do similarly as a father did and obliterate a tremendous chunk of the population? >> look, i was in hama right afterwards. it was a smoking city, ruins. there was 1982, february, 30,000 people at least were killed in
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artillery shellings and it wasn't -- don't look at assad as a mad man. those were all alowite officers that did the shelling. the only way they thought they could counter this was flatten the third largest city, which is what they did. you to see it to see the devastation and what these people do to protect themselves. >> would bashar al assad be willing to go down with his people if he could inflict this kind of harm? >> i think if we use history as prologue, yes. >> bob baer, that's frightening. thank you so much. and while the world fears the potential use of chemical weapons by the syrian government, a conventional weapons strike on of all places a suburban school. 29 students and their teachers killed in a mortar attack in this camp just about 15 miles
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northeast of damascus. state run media is reporting that the rebels are behind the deadly shelling. battles east of damascus have grown especially bloody. government troops are trying to push back rebels who are inching closer and closer to the capital city. and in yet another sign that the syrian opposition is gaining ground to the north and the city of aleppo, a military academy is under siege. this was one of the syrian government's last strongholds. this is where some 450 government soldiers are being held by rebel forces. a young girl suffering from cancer disappears after she and her mother leave the hospital. and now a police search and concerns about her health. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. the man in charge of fox news apparently sent a message to david petraeus about a run
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for president. but, the advice didn't stop there. a warning for all americans. get ready. this flu season is going to be awful. and the strain going around is troubling. and after california bans gay conversion thera one judge says not so fast. ♪
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keep dreaming. keep doing. go long. with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. some movement within the past couple of hours in a strike that could keep hot gifts off store shelves before christmas. for an eighth day, dock workers at two huge ports in southern california are refusing to cross the picket line and set up by clerical workers. today, both sides have reached an agreement of sorts. they agree they need a federal mediator. i want to bring in miguel marquez in long beach. what's the deal? what's the hang-up here? >> reporter: well, the hang-up is over language regarding outsourcing of jobs.
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only talking about 800 jobs in total, and a small fraction of those are their clerical workers at the port that are striking. one of the people who is a -- represents the labor union said they were miles away a few days ago. now about a yard away. the mayor of los angeles has been up all night, he got in from an overseas trip in l.a.x. up the way here. he came here last night about midnight and he's been up with the negotiators all night trying to get them to this point today. here is how he described how those negotiations are going. >> i can just tell you as a general proposition that there is too wide of a chasm between the parties now, though the good news is they have agreed to federal mediation, they had not agreed -- agreed to that together before this. and importantly they also are getting some movement. i saw movement this morning that i hadn't seen last night or
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during the night. >> reporter: look, there was optimism all around, including the individuals representing the companies that are represented here and the labor unions. there is that federal mediator. he'll be on the ground here about 8:00 local time tonight. his name is george cohen, coming out of d.c., he's said to be the top negotiator, mediator for the federal mediation service. he's also bringing a number two guy out of minneapolis tonight as well. so the pressure is on here. the mayor says he will be back here tonight. the pressure is on to get these ships -- get these people back to work and get the longshoremen back to work so the ships can get unloaded and it won't have a huge impact on the economy. almost a half trillion dollars in goods comes through these two ports, los angeles and long beach every year. this is a massive disruption to things down the road. and not just christmas. we're talking into the spring and summer at this point. >> yeah. half a trillion dollars, that is quite a chunk of change, miguel
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marquez. let us know if they go from the miles to the yard, some kind of compromise. we appreciate you there in long beach, thank you. the rush is on. take a look at this door buster. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. seriously? >> she says, seriously? what is this over? no holiday sale or special caused this mad dash. find out what led parents to this frenzy next. anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.
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but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education.
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let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. oh, my god. oh, my god. seriously? >> look at these pictures with me. moms, dads, making a mad dash to enroll their children in this school district's only public
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elementary school with an engineering program. that's why they're doing this. the stampede erupted at a.j. whittenburg elementary in south carolina. applications are first come, first served. some parents even camped out to be the first in that line. but school administrators say they are rethinking that system. one woman was injured in this enrollment frenzy. she did secure her child a spot in the school. look at that. the video shows you just how far some parents will go to get their child enrolled in the very best school possible. the pressure oftentimes is much greater and much more nerve wracking at some of the nation's top private schools particularly for minority students. a private school in new york discovered that gaining admittance is hardly the same as gaining acceptance. jason carol explains. >> you are sitting in a classroom and realize all of a sudden you really are a minority. >> reporter: it is a vealing look at a subject few talk openly about. >> the tragedy of an undiverse
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place is that you don't have the full sound, just that there are pieces of the spectrum just missing. >> reporter: the experience of being admitted yet feeling like an outcast inspired students at new york's trinity school to film a documentary called allowed to attend. deirdre banten, now a college freshman, remembers her years at trinity well. did you feel like you culturally fit in with the rest of the students there? >> short answer is no. there are some things that are just straight up racist, you know? like the fact that when tuition raised, a lot of people on scholarship were, like, people -- rumor started that it was our fault. there are some things straight up racist where people confused me and my friend c.c. who we don't look anything alike, but we're both black. >> reporter: ben says many students routinely feel socially isolated. the documentary explores the reason why. school administrators supported
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the project. >> we didn't know exactly what they were going to say really, but we knew that getting honest, personal stories about experiences here would be fabulous and it is what we really needed. >> reporter: trinity alum clay wardman says gaining acceptance at prep schools can be tough for any student, regardless of race. trinity is one of the country's most expensive. tuition running upward of $35,000 per year. >> it is a product of socioeconomics which means a product of race, i would say. it's the -- if you look really at literally what is dividing people, i think money is most of it. >> but regardless of what the cause is, the discomfort's there. so what you need to take care of is just open dialogue. >> reporter: benton says she has fond memories of trinity and is a proud alum. she hopes the dialogue created by the documentary will help all students to feel more than just
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being allowed to attend. jason carol, cnn, new york. >> and we want you to watch cnn's soledad o'brien. she's examining the provocative questions about skin color, discrimination and race. it is a documentary called "who is black in america." premieres sunday, december 9th at 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. bragging rights again. iran claims it's captured a second american drone and issues a warning. details next. honey... ya? you notice something different about these toys? the prices are so low. are we dreaming? i got an idea. kick me in the shin. if i feel it, we know the prices are real. yep, they're real. we've got more rollbacks on toys all december. wait, was that real? [ male announcer ] this christmas, get the hottest brands and rollbacks on the season's hottest toys, like the beyblade destroyer dome,
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the u.s. navy is saying all of its active drones are accounted for after iran claimed to have captured one of them. iranian state tv says the unmanned military aircraft was
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captured over the persian gulf while spying on iran in iranian air space. iran isn't saying when or how this purported capture happened. it does say the drone in question is a scan eagle drone. that's a lower cost model also used by several washington's persian gulf allies. iran's announcement comes one year to the day after it claimed to have downed a more sophisticated drone over iranian soil. and an intense typhoon hit the philippines killing 27 people. rising water and high winds hit millions in the storm's path. many of those live, as you can see, pretty remote areas, unprepared communities. typhoon comes a year after a storm killed more than 1200 people on the very same island. a federal judge here saying hold on a second, after california becomes first state to ban conversion therapy. that's the treatment aimed at turning young gay people
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straight. california governor jerry brown signed the law not too long ago, which is scheduled to go into effect the first of the year. but this judge now says that may not work because it could trample the first amendment rights of therapists. coming up next, police are frantically searching for this 11-year-old little girl, a cancer patient. she was last seen right here in the surveillance video walking out of the hospital doors with her mom. now, doctors worry her life is in danger. we have the latest on the investigation next.
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police in arizona are desperately searching for this 11-year-old leukemia patient. she disappeared six days ago, just one day shy of being released from the hospital. but here's the thing. doctors fear this catheter in this girl's heart could possibly lead to an infection, could endanger her life. girl, she's identified only as
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emily, and you see her here walking on the right side of that, with her mother on the left. this is surveillance video, leaving phoenix children's hospital. the woman allegedly removed the girl's iv, changed her clothes, and walked her out the door. as for why, no one seems to know. the 11-year-old already had to have her right arm amputated because of an infection and is in desperate need of medical care. want to bring in sergeant steve martos from the phoenix police department. welcome. any idea at this hour where emily is? >> unfortunately we don't. we're still out there searching, we're following up on leads. however sadly at this point we don't know where she's at. >> i understand u.s. border patrol agents stopped and questioned emily's father, who is part of this whole, you know, thing recently, what did he say? >> well, unfortunately he didn't provide much information to us. he was stopped as he was entering the united states into
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arizona on saturday night into early sunday morning. border patrol agents on our behalf began speaking to him, he denied any involvement or knowledge about emily being removed from the hopped and sadly could not provide or did not provide information to us as to where she is. >> so then, sergeant, the obvious question is, i know this isn't perhaps an answer -- an answer for the hospital, but how does a mother and this child who now has her arm amputated, who is walking around, looks like with an rv, you know, how does she manage to slip past hospital staff? >> well, if you're in a hospital, we allow people to walk around and that's what occurred here. mom took little emily out of her room, began walking around the hospital, unbeknownst to hospital staff. emily's mother took her into a bathroom, changed her clothes, put a wig on her, removed the iv and walked her out of the hospital. that's our concern right now, that she walked her out of the hospital without this catheter
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being properly sealed. >> what do you know about this having happened before, the same mother removing her daughter from a hospital before this day? >> well, we have heard some of that, that has occurred, there has been history between the mother and father removing emily from medical care prematurely. we're still trying to follow up on some of that information. we don't have a lot of that at this time. however, again, we have heard that they have removed emily prematurely. >> sergeant martos, we appreciate it. we'll talk to the doctor, not the one who cared for emily but she can walk us through how dire the situation is for this little girl with leukemia. sergeant, thank you. it is back to the bargaining table after the white house rejects the republican proposal to avert the fiscal cliff. coming up next, i'll talk with a hard-line conservative and let's ask him if he supports his party's proposal. congressman tom price is standing by. but first, as americans worry about what happens after the first of next year, cnn is
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giving you free advice about your savings account. here on the help desk, we're talking about putting your money to work. with me this hour are greg olson and carmen wong ulrich. tova had a question about her savings. >> it is earning dreadfully low interest for numerous years. and is there anywhere that i can put my money that it's going to do any better? >> and that's going to be like that for a while with the fed doing its thing, right? >> absolutely. i don't think this is a bad thing. if this is your cash emergency savings that you cannot risk, basically what you're paying is very small opportunity cost. like insurance. so let's say you're earning 1% on your savings, right, inflation is eating away at it a little bit. it is certainly a lot lower than having to go into credit card debt because you no cash on hand. you want to make sure you put it somewhere where it is growing a little bit, go online, shop for free, look for online only banks who have about 1.3% interest on
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that and make sure you understand that is sitting there for a reason and that little price you're paying is very worthwhile. >> do you agree? >> i do. but if there is any money that she might be able to allocate for the stock market, people are living longer and longer, just a little bit of risk capital over time might be a higher interest rate over time. >> great advice, thanks. if you have an issue you want our experts to tackle, upload a 30 second video with your help desk question to ireport.com. ally bank. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no.
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if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.
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back to our conversation on the so-called fiscal cliff. the debt reducing tax hikes and federal spending cuts coming january 1st unless congress and the president act. so now both sides have offers on the table, the democrats' plan which would focus debt reduction on higher tax rates for the wealthiest 2%. house republicans, they anted up
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yesterday with a plan to cut the debt through tax code and spending reforms, not through higher tax rates for the wealthy. if there is no agreement, you know the deal, everyone, everyone's taxes go up. representative tom price of georgia joins me now from capitol hill. he is a hard line republican. congressman, good to see you. thanks for coming on. >> yes, thank you so much. good to be with you. >> the republican plan published yesterday, it is note worthry, congressman price, it would raise more money through the tax system this and is a pretty big departure for your republican party. i just want to know, do you support this proposal put forward by the speaker of the house? >> well, this proposal is just part of the overall package. remember, this doesn't touch on the death tax or capital gains or dividends or the alternative minimum tax or the sequester or the -- >> just this proposal? yes or no, do you support it? >> i don't believe i can do that given that we don't have the whole package. but, look, this is a very, very
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sad situation because we don't have the president negotiating in good faith. this is like you offering to buy a car and the salesperson on the other side of the desk saying, okay, we're gone, thanks. and that's not the way a negotiation goes. >> let me jump in. let me jump in. congressman, how come it wouldn't be like the president offering up one price for the car, the republicans coming forward and saying, well, here is another price for the car, here is another way to pay for it and meet in the middle? >> and that's exactly what the speaker did yesterday. i don't envy him one bit. he's got a terrible task with negotiating with the president who aparentallyal lall lally wa politics. they put on the table a good faith offer and the president says no. that's not how you negotiate. it is time to get down to work, solve the challenges we have because the alternative is not good for anybody in this country. >> here's one question then congressman price. why not go ahead, why not view the 98% at the same tax rate,
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the one americans are already paying now, do that before the first of the year, taxes at least don't go up for the majority of the country, and then you negotiate the rest in let's say the first four weeks of the new year. why not do that now? >> well, it is classic washington quote, solution. it doesn't solve anything. the president's tax increase on the upper two brackets raise enough money to run the federal government, not for eight years, not for eight months, not for eight weeks, but for eight days. that doesn't solve a thing. it appears to me the president is simply interested in raising taxes to make a political statement, not to solve a policy issue. we need real solutions. the american people know it. that's what we need to be working on. that's what the negotiations ought to be concentrating on. >> the word out of washington is pretty pessimistic today about getting any kind of deal averting the fiscal cliff. we're hearing from folks on the hill there are no -- there are no private, you know, mat
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matchinations or talks. it is up about eight points around the 13,000 level. keep in mind the date is december 4th, 2012. if we go off this cliff, how much do you think the dow will lose. conman price, can you slap a number on that? >> no, no way to do that. what i do know -- >> how worried are folks on wall street? >> well, i think they're very worried. when i talked to folks out there trying to create jobs and find some certainty in the market so they can expand their businesses and create jobs, what they say is that all of this uncertainty hurts and so that's why we're so -- i'm confounded by an administration and president who seemingly isn't interested in providing that certainty. that's what we need to work on. that's what the negotiation process ought to be bringing us. certainty in the tax code, certainty in regulatory policy, all the kinds of things that are harming job creation right now. we need jobs. certainty will get us jobs. >> your fellow georgian and your
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fellow republican saxby champ business who is up for re-election, he has committed himself to working with the democrats, to try to resolve some of the critical tax and spending issues. do you think he's played a constructive role here? >> well, what i do know is that what the voters on november 6th said is that we don't want ruling by one party. we want divided government. what they said is go back to washington and get to work. provide appropriate leadership and solve these challenges. so whether it is what is happening over in the senate or in the white house right now, i don't see the kind of leadership coming out of -- >> so back to saxby chambliss, sir, i'm not hearing praise. am i to read between the lines in what you're not saying is what you're saying? >> no, look, this takes two to tango. and we don't have the other side tangoing. you can't dance by yourself. when you do, it doesn't work. doesn't look very pretty. we need the administration to engage in a positive way, not a
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negative the way they are now. >> will you mount a primary challenge? >> i beg your pardon? >> will you mount a primary challenge against saxby chambliss? >> awhat we're trying to do is solve the remarkable challenges we have right now. >> i know you don't want to answer my question. i'm a journalist and i get to ask, can i get a yes or no, sir? >> no, you can't get a yes or no. >> there we go. thank you so much. congressman tom price, thanks for joining me. republican, georgia, appreciate it. getting new jersey back to presandy conditions, the cost, billions of dollars. coming up next, governor chris christie asking fema to foot the entire bill. look this isn't my first christmas. these deals all seem great at the time... but later... [ shirt ] merry christmas, everybody! not so much. ho ho ho! this isn't that kind of deal. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. save on ground shipping at fedex office.
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sandy. fema generally reimburses states in the ballpark of 75% of costs following disasters like this. the governor says cleaning up and repairing new jersey after the superstorm could cost nearly $40 billion. an extramarital affair ended his stellar career of public service. but not so long ago there was some serious talk that general david petraeus might run for president. some of that talk apparently even came from the top at fox news. washington post bob woodward writes about some private recordings in which fox news analyst k.t. mcfarland meeting with general petraeus in afghanistan in the spring of last year delivered a personal message from roger ales. >> he says if you're offered chairman, take it. if you're offered anything else, don't take it, resign in six months and run for president. okay. i know you're not running for president. but at some point when you go to new york next, you may want to just chat with roger and
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rupert -- >> well, rupert, look, what i have told people is that, you know, i truly want to continue to serve my country if it is in a -- you know, quite significantly meaningful position and there is all of about two of those in the world. >> howard kurtz, good to see you, sir. roger ailes tells the post, yes, he did tell k.t. mcfarland, made the offer but more of a -- but more of a joke. do you buy that? >> well, the reason i don't completely buy is because ailes is not denying it and as i've reported in the past, he is a former republican strategist, has a history of meeting privately with people like mitt romney and other candidates on the gop side when they were r running. he likes to keep his fingers in
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the political pie a little bit. >> why would he care? what would be in it for roger ailes? . >> i don't think that's the way to look at it. roger ailes i know really cares about the country. he's made no secret of his conservative views. he may have believed general petraeus was a great general, would be a great leader for this country. the problem comes in is one of perception. we don't know because this is just an audiotape involving a fox contributor, we don't know how serious a courtship this was. but fox is a news organization that covers petraeus and politics and if somebody from, i don't know, cnn, nbc, abc had the head of one of those networks met with somebody on the democratic side, said, hey, you ought to run for president, the fox commentators would be all over it? i think so. >> ailes also said, his words, it sounds like she thought she was on a secret mission in a
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reagan administration, way out of line. it is someone's fantasy to make me a kingmaker. it is not my job. is that a denial? >> well, it sort of says the story is not as serious and melodramatic as the audiotape would make it appear and k.t. was freelancing. at the same time, you don't see any words in there which roger ailes said i didn't tell her to say that or had nothing to do with it. the idea that rupert murdoch, who, of course, controls news corp. and fox news channel, would bankroll, to use the words from the tape, a petraeus presidential bid, that's not that far fetched. murdoch has given seven figure donations in the past to the republican party. >> we have that tape. we have that tape. and then i'll get your reaction. let's roll that part of it. the bankrolling part. >> tell him if i ever ran, i won't, if i ever ran, i would take him up on his offer. >> okay.
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all right. >> he said -- >> bankroll. >> bankroll it? >> or maybe i'm confusing that with rupert. >> i don't think. i mean, i know -- bankrolling it is a big -- >> that might be -- >> roger said run and the rest of us will be your -- >> they're kind of laughing about it, but bankroll, that could be rupert murdoch putting cash forward for potential petraeus campaign. you were saying, howard kurtz, it wouldn't be far fetched because he'ses give given a to money in the past. >> i think when he does that, look, murdoch is free to donate to whoever he wants, but because he controls not just fox news but the wall street journal, the times of london, the new york post, i think it does raise questions about the way those news organizations operate if the guy at the top is such an
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obvious partisan. but the funny thing on the tape, brooke, is when petraeus says he couldn't possibly run for president because he loves his wife and she would divorce him. we know what happened in light of the affair with paula broadwell. >> too soon, howard kurtz. we'll see you sunday morning, reliable sources, thank you. you might know her from the pages of vogue magazine. or the character she inspired in that hit movie "the devil wears prada." soon we could know anna wintour by another name. ambassador wintour. he board mee. anne's tablet called my phone. anne's tablet was chatting with a tablet in sydney... a desktop in zurich... and a telepresence room in brazil. the secure cloud helped us get some numbers from my assistant's pc in new york. and before i reached the top, the board meeting became a congrats we sold the company party. wait til my wife's phone hears about this. [ cellphone vibrating ] [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center, working together has never worked so well.
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york. >> always flattering me. >> why would anna wintour want the job? she's kind of busy as it is. >> she most certainly is very busy. you're talking about the most powerful person in fashion, brooke, as you know. this is a story that has been out there for quite some time. it was long rumored, talked about quite a bit in fashion circles during the campaign. and it was said that she might be given the post of u.s. ambassador to the uk. and anna wintour after all is british. and the guessing game even began as to who might replace her at vogue. those rumors over the past several months actually had died down, brooke, until today. but you can imagine why people are talking about this. listen, as one writer put it, the tea party has the coke brothers. mitt romney had bain capital, but only president obama has anna wintour. this is a woman who was one of the president's most powerful
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boundlers of donations. she raised more than $500,000 toward president obama's re-election campaign. she held a $40,000 a plate dinner party at sarah jessica parker's townhouse in new york earlier in the fall. she later held lavish fund-raisers, star studded by the way, in london and paris. >> so she's raised all this money and done so much for the obamas, what is she saying? what is vogue saying about this? >> you know, vogue will only officially say that these are still rumors and that she's very happy in her current job. listen, i do know anna wintour a little bit, brooke. and i can tell you that there are people close to her in some circles who would be quite surprised. again, she's the most powerful person in fashion. some have suggested ambassadorial post is a lame duck position that after a couple of years you're out and then what? this is a woman who is a kingmaker in fashion as one
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publicist said, you can do it without anna but it takes a lot longer. >> alina cho, we wanted to find out what you were hearing, your sources. more information is starting to surface about the events leading up to that murder/suicide involving an nfl player and his young girlfriend. the kansas city star is reporting that the kansas city chiefs had been providing counseling for linebacker jovan belcher and his girlfriend kasandra perkins. police tell the star the couple had been arguing for months before belcher shot the 22-year-old in their home early saturday. before then shooting himself later in front of his coach. and this reporting we're getting here from sports illustrated.com, they say belcher was out partying with another woman the night before the shootings. si also reporting that belcher had been drinking. let me play something for you. this is belcher's aunt, she is speaking to reporters outside the couple's kansas city home.
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>> we will cherish the wonderful memories we have of jovan and pray that those memories will bring us peace as we grapple to understand the unpredictable and tragic ending of his life and the life of ckasandra perkins. we continue on hour two. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. the question we are asking is this. is bashar al assad bluffing as fears grow that his regime will unleash chemical weapons in his country of syria? we're digging on what the syrian gas would do and where it's coming from. but first, there is a little bit of everything going on in washington, d.c. right now. you have your holiday parties, couple of press conferences, maybe even a little political posturing. one thing not happening is formal face to face serious talks on the looming fiscal cliff. but, hey, there is still 28 days until a huge package of tax
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hikes and spending cuts kicks in. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is on the hill for us today. you're reporting there no formal talks going on, but is there something, anything going on behind the scenes? >> reporter: let me read you an e-mail i got from a group of republican source, who said no conversations today no e-mails, tweets or carrier pigeons. that pretty much answers that question. no. generally what happens with this kind of high stakes negotiating is you have the public bluster and posturing going on. but the behind the scenes you have conversations that happen, that tries to sort of really feel the other side out, and try to get a sense of where a compromise could happen. i'm told not just by republican sources but democratic sources that simply is not happening today despite jay carney insisting there are conversations going on. he said that at the white house today. why is that, brooke? i can tell you that just by talking to democrats in particular, they really feel that they have the upper hand and the ability to run out the
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clock because they think it is a political win-win. if they stick to their guns on that big divide, raising taxes on the wealthy, then -- then they win because republicans, they believe, will get blamed if we go over the cliff. or republicans will cave at the end of the day and they'll agree to raise taxes on them. so democrats, again, believe that they are in a winning political position and that's why i think that this point they don't feel the pressure to engage back with the republicans as much as republicans feel to get talks with democrats. >> the president responding to some of this in a bloomberg tv interview today, basically saying, look, we staked out our position and now we're waiting for a little something perhaps in between. i don't know. as far as house republicans go, they have offered up, you broke it yesterday, this $800 billion in new revenue in their proposal. some conservatives are angry. we just had hard line republican congressman price from georgia, he said he doesn't support the boehner proposal. who is speaking out on this?
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>> reporter: very interesting. as much as the white house dismisses this new republican counteroffer, the one we reported yesterday, there are a lot of conservatives who are quite upset with the idea of republicans putting on paper the idea of raising $800 billion in taxes. one of those conservatives is senator jim demint. listen to what he said. >> republicans should not be conceding that the federal government needs more money, negotiating with ourselves, and treating the president's proposal like it's serious. this is not a time to negotiate with ourselves. we need to invite the president to work with us, his proposal was so outlandish, i don't think we should go back to the table until he puts something there that we can work with. >> reporter: now, brooke, house republican leaders are particularly those in speaker boehner's office are saying this is proof that they have moved away from the traditional republican position, moving towards the white house. so the white house should take
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that into consideration. but there definitely is an important undercurrent we should explore here, which is the fact that at the end of the day, if there is a deal, i talked to some republicans who say that the speaker really has to be careful to get the majority of a majority of his republican conference in order to make sure that he -- >> a majority of majority. >> reporter: majority of a majority, to make sure he still has leadership leverage with his fellow republicans going forward and dealing with the president in the future. >> dana bash, thanks for covering this for us. we appreciate it. how washington, you know, eventually deals with this fiscal cliff, of course, that's the great unknown. but it is making a lot of business leaders very, very nervous. christine romans, she spoke with one ceo who says leaders in washington, they're focused on the wrong issue. >> i asked the outspoken ceo of fedex how companies plan ahead when washington is so dysfunctional. >> well, i think most of the ceos look at the situation in washington with complete amazement and dismay to be frank
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about it. the problem is the ideological pinnings on both sides of this argument are so difficult to bridge that it's going to be hard for them to get a deal. >> this is a time when companies should be planning for next year. spending money, buying equipment, building factories, hiring workers. instead they have no idea what tax rates will be and whether congress will spark a new recession. and companies are already pulling back. you can see that in the third quarter gdp report. companies spending on software and equipment fell almost 3% in the quarter. we haven't seen that since the recession. s i asked fred smith if he would accept higher taxes to get a deal done and avoid going over this cliff. >> there is a lot of mythology in washington such as it's small business that creates all of the jobs in the united states. and if you raise the rates on the top 2%, you'll kill jobs.
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the reality is the vast majority of jobs in the united states are produced by capital investment and equipment and software not done by small business. it is done by big business. and the so-called gazelles, the emerging companies like the new fracking oil and gas operations. it is capital investment and equipment and software that is the solution to our economic problems. not the marginal tax rates of individuals. >> the wrong thing. >> that's my view. >> they're fighting about the wrong things, he says. the only thing bigger than the budget deficit is the trust deficit in washington. christine romans, cnn, new york. developing now, nato allies say they have grave concerns that syria's government could be preparing to do precisely what so many have been fearing, unleash the chemical weaponry on its own people. president obama issuing a stern warning after intelligence reports suggest that president bashar al assad's regime is
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mixing these chemicals to make the deadly, deadly gas called sarin. >> today i want to make it absolutely clear to assad and those under his command, the world is watching. the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable. >> former british prime minister tony blair echoing the concerns earlier today on cnn. >> there are a lot of people dying. now the death toll probably would be around 40,000 since this began, since a large number of people. but if there was any sense at all that assad was going to use chemical weapons or did use chemical weapons against his own people, i would expect a very tough response that would be military. >> cnn's pentagon correspondent barbara starr is live for me now. what i'm not hearing from the
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president or either from secretary clinton or tony blair is, you know, they talk about the if. what then? any possible scenarios, possible action, i'm not hearing concrete scenarios, are you? >> well, you're not, brooke. i think for a very good reason. they want to stop this before it gets to that. nobody wants to have to strike at syrian chemical weapons plants. if you think about it logically, it is a very tough target. you have to know exactly where it is. you have to strike that hard enough to virtually incinerate all the chemical or biological material there before it escapes into the atmosphere. if those chemical weapons started to go on the move, in artillery shells or bombs, could you chase them all down? and, of course, in syria, much of this material is located or co-located in neighborhoods and towns with civilian populations. so you're putting civilian populations at risk. i think that's why you're hearing the very tough language from washington to nato
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headquarters. everybody wants this stopped before it even happens, brooke. >> talking about baer last hour, former cia, he said a drop of sarin is deadly. i want to ask you about syria's neighbor, turkey. we know nato has approved turkey's request for these patriot interceptor missiles to defend its own borders from further spillover of violence from syria. russia, you know, one of assad's last remaining allies, is now warning that could make the situation worse. what do you make of that? >> well, you know, russia is somebody that the u.s. wants to diplomatically rely on right now, to convince assad again on the chemical wearfare question, get the russians to tell him absolutely not, do not do this. on the question of the turkish border, you know, none of this is really a very clean situation, who's on one side, who's on the other side in terms of the russians. the russians are concerned about putting patriot missiles there because that's patriot missiles in nato, not all that far from
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their territory. turkey is saying it's strictly for their self-defense, just a few days ago, the syrians in that border region with turkey launched a number of missiles with a range of 60 miles. that's the kind of thing on that northern syrian border that has the turks and nato so worried and they want the russians on board to tell the syrians not to do any of this. brooke? >> barbara starr, thank you. a young girl suffering from cancer disappears after she and her mother leave the hospital. and now a police search and concerns about her health. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. the man in charge of fox news apparently sent a message to david petraeus about a run for president. but, the advice didn't stop there. a warning for all americans, get ready. this flu season is going to be awful. and the strain going around is
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troubling. and i'll speak live with one democrat who says america should go over the fiscal cliff. he tells me why. welcome to chevy's year-end event. so, the 5.3-liter v-8 silverado can tow up to 9,600 pounds? 315 horsepower. what's that in reindeer power? [ laughing ] [ stops laughing ] [ male announcer ] chevy's giving more. this holiday season, trade up to get the 2012 chevy silverado all-star edition for 0% apr financing for 60 months plus $2,000 cash allowance or get a total value of $9,000.
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why would a mother sneak her daughter out of the hospital, take her from vital leukemia treatments and just, poof, disappear? no one seems to know the why yet. but this girl, she is identified only as emily, she is seen right here, see her on the right side of your screen, walking along, with her mother, this is surveillance video. they're leaving phoenix children's hospital recently. the woman allegedly just removed the girl's iv, changed her clothes, walked her right out of the hospital door. she disappeared six days ago, just one day shy of being released from the hospital. and doctors fear that this catheter, this iv and the girl's heart could cause an infection and possibly endanger her life. joining me here is dr. emilio langston and attorney joey jackson. so welcome to both of you. what a story this is.
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first, to you, doctor, when i first hear about a heart catheter or it is an iv, that, from the limited knowledge i know of this, it is an open wound in a sense, is it not? >> typically what we have to do, when we're treating a patient with leukemia, is we place a sort of semipermanent iv line so that we can administer chemotherapy, administer antibiotics and blood products and draw blood without having to stick the person multiple times per day. but -- >> if you're not in the hospital and you have this iv in you, is this something you can easily remove on your own? >> no. no. it really needs to be managed by a trained professional. >> and if not managed by a trained professional, then what? >> it can certainly lead to blood stream infections that can very rapidly cause very serious problems, particularly in somebody whose immune system is severely suppressed by chemotherapy. >> if when you look at the big picture for her, because she has
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this, in her heart, she has recently -- you can see in the surveillance video, she had an arm amputated recently, undergoing chemotherapy, can you put a timeline on how many days she would have before it gets -- before it gets really dire for her? >> i don't think we can put a timeline on it. but certainly anytime that we're treating a patient for this type of disorder we want to have them under very close medical surveillance, whether in the hospital or out of the hospital. that patient, like this, are typically seen every few days to make sure there aren't signs or symptoms of infection. >> joey jackson, if and when this mother is found, she's in trouble. >> yeah, she really could be. brooke, ultimately patients do have rights and one of those rights is to refuse medical treatment. here, the problem is, as you're endangering a child. and that's problematic, p particularly when the result could be, i don't want to say what the result could be, we know what the result could be here, brooke. when you endanger someone like this, the authorities don't take too kindly to it and as a
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result, she can get into really serious trouble. >> wouldn't really matter. this is a hoipt cal, later if the mother comes forward and said my daughter wanted to leave, my daughter wanted to leave, that doesn't matter because she's 11. >> what happens, of course, what happens is the parent takes responsibility because of the age of consent. an 11-year-old is not in a position to decide whether or not she's well enough to leave. so the parent would make that medical decision. in this particular case, it is the wrong medical decision to make. i'm sure the authorities don't want to criminalize this. they want to get her back so they can provide the adequate care, remove the catheter. but it could come to that. >> dr. langston, how long have you been a doctor? >> over 20 years. >> have you ever in your 20 years heard of someone doing this? >> not with a child. >> not with a child. not with a child. bottom line, what could happen to this mother? >> the bottom line is that, listen, you know, bring the child back, find her, there is some issues with it, she may be in mexico, that's the other issue here, she could be in
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serious trouble, brooke, as a result of endangering the welfare of this child. i just hope the end result is a positive one that doesn't result in charges, results in the saved life and a girl who ultimately is happy, healthy and a family united. >> we all agree with him. we agree. dr. emilio languaston and attory joey jackson, thank you. a terror plot foiled, two brothers in florida accused of trying to unleash a weapon of mass destruction. their alleged conspiracy and the arrest next. anncr: some politicians seem to think medicare and...
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an alleged plot to use a weapon of mass destruction foiled. these two brothers originally from pakistan, they both have been indicted on charges they planned to use explosives and provide materials to terrorists. the brothers who are u.s. citizens were arrested by fbi agents in ft. lauderdale. the justice department is not giving specifics on this alleged plot. but, investigators say they are trying to figure out if the brothers were acting alone or following instructions from a terrorist group overseas. two of the nation's busiest ports shut down as a crippling labor strike drags on.
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in southern california, the 8 day old strike in long beach hits a new snag. dock workers are refusing to set up the picket lines set up by port clerical workers. this is a busy time of year, holiday shipping happens right now. just a couple of hours ago, the mayor of los angeles, he stepped out in front of the cameras with this announcement. here he was. >> we have met all night. we have worked across the table with a number of proposals. it is still clear to me that
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we're some bit a part, though progress has been made. both parties have agreed to federal mediation and federal mediator. >> miguel marquez is live for us at long beach. you hear mayor villaraigosa saying progress is meade but no enough. what's next? >> reporter: it is not the progress we wanted. we talked to folk always morning and they said a deal is going to be done, a doeal is going to be announced and then no deal. that federal mediator will come in from d.c. he has a number two mediator coming in from minneapolis at the same time. just seeing the negotiators for the companies coming back from a short lunch break, they're going back in, the mayor will come back here this evening as well when the mediators get here. they want this thing to get done. what they're hung up on is language regarding outsourcing. one of the labor officials tells me two days ago they were miles apart. now they're about a yard apart. the companies agreed in
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principle to put some language into the contract about not moving jobs out of this area. now they're haggling over those details. it is coming down to words within a single paragraph or two over how they define outsourcing jobs. some of these jobs here in the last three years, they say, 50 jobs have left this port, gone to houston, to denver. they don't even want the jobs outsourced to other states much less to other countries. so what these -- what these workers want is going to be tough for these companies to agree to because companies don't want to be bound obviously by what they can do with their workers. >> federal mediator has a big job to do. we'll follow up with you tomorrow and see if any progress will be made. miguel marquez, thank you for us, in long beach. staying in california, north to northern california, also oregon, washington state, getting soaked again by the fourth storm just since wednesday. this dangerous weather made for
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pretty scary situation for an oregon couple. look at this. see this car? looks like half a car now. narrowly escaped being crushed by a tree. >> it is a miracle. it is hard to believe still that we were in there. that's our car. or was. >> wow. some places have seen nearly two feet of rain in just this past week. dan simon is in lafayette, california. just northeast of oakland, where there is this huge, huge sinkhole. i'm guessing you're standing somewhere near it, dan. show me what it is and how they're going to fix it. >> reporter: yeah, hey, brook, we're standing in the middle of this enormous sinkhole in lafayette, california, about 20 miles east of san francisco. you can see some of the crews here clearing away the debris. let me explain to you how this happened. there is actually a creek that runs underneath this, or it did. and it basically got clogged and it tore away all the dirt, all
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the mud, and with it brought down the street. you can see the entire street basically caved in, no traffic going on either side. this is a major inconvenience for the people who live in this neighborhood. you can see one of the things that crews had to do is they had to set up a temporary sewer line. also a temporary water line. this is one of the lines here, they went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that the people in this neighborhood aren't affected in terms of their basic services. now, this was one of the storms that came by, just a couple of days ago, and, of course, more rain is in the forecast. this is really the last thing that people need in this area and throughout the bay area as well. brooke? >> dan, thank you. how about this? you've been putting off getting the flu shot, want you to take a look at this with me. the cdc is issuing a flu warning. the flu season is off to its earliest start in a decade and it can be a bad one. take a look at this map.
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four states, alaska, mississippi, south carolina, and new york all reporting widespread flu cases. and another map for you, this is higher than normal records of flu from alabama, louisiana, mississippi, tennessee and texas. and the last time the flu season started this early was back in the winter of '03-'04. the flu killed more than 48,000 people that year. i want to bring in our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen because already there are similarities between this current flu season and the one back some ten years ago. >> right, exactly. back ten years ago, as you said, not only was it early, but it was severe. they really saw severe cases especially among the elderly and children. and this kind of activity this time of year is really quite unusual. usually we see this level of activity that you were just describing about a month later. >> now i hear all about this. i'm thinking i haven't had my flu shot yet. is it too late for us?
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>> no, it is not too late. we haven't seen the worst of it yet. the flu is probably going to get worse. so get it now. it takes about two weeks to kick in. doesn't work automatically. so the sooner that you get it the better. this year it seems to be working particularly well. some years the shot works better than others. this seems to be a good year for the shot. >> final question, who should be getting this shot? >> anyone over the age of 6 months. anyone. and do it not just for yourself, but also for others. when you go visit grandma, you don't want to give her the flu. if someone is taking care of their children, you don't want to give them the flu. do it for yourself and the people you love. >> thank you very much. coming up, i'll talk live to a democrat who says america should go over the fiscal cliff. i'll ask him why next. there's a health company that can help you stay that way.
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i'm ali velshi. this is your money. president obama says read my lips. there will be new taxes. but first, let's look at the money menu today. december, gift buying time.
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as you just heard, the stuff you're looking to buy could be stuck at sea. two of the largest shipping ports in the united states are mostly closed. the strike now in its eighth day, affects us all. as nearly 40% of imports flowing into the country are bottlenecking. the ports of los angeles and long beach, california, bring in a lot of hot ticket items that americans buy over the holidays including electronics, clothing and furniture. the national retail federation is urging president obama to step in and end the strike. in a letter to the president, the nrf says, quote, the shutdown is already having a significant negative economic impact on retailers, trying to bring in merchandise for their final push for the holiday sales and will soon have an impact on consumers. now, while i agree the strike will affect consumers eventually, we found that most of the stuff you'll purchase in time to give as gifts for the holiday already passed through the ports between august and september. don't worry about christmas. worry about next year if this
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strike goes on. as i told you yesterday, the republican counterproposal for heading off the fiscal cliff was a nonstarter. president obama made clear today that it will not be possible to get a deal to avert the fiscal cliff without raising taxes on the wealthy. the gop's plan did promise $2.2 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade. that's about half of what the president promises in his plan. but the gop plan does it without any tax hikes on the rich. and that is not going to fly with democrats. republicans for their part are unhappy that the president's proposal calls for $200 billion more in stimulus spending over the next year. here is how that breaks down. $95 billion to extend the payroll tax cut for one year, $30 billion to extend jobless benefit for one year, $50 billion to spend on roads and bridges and another $25 billion on short-term stuff like a temporary tax deduction for small businesses. the argument in favor of the
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president's plan is this could help people still hurting from years of economic trouble, but you know as well as i do, stimulus is almost as bad a word to republicans as tax hike. those are two words, actually. speaking of potential tax hikes, businesses continue to figure out how to operate amidst uncertainty. you can add oracle to the list of companies moving up their dividend payments to avoid a potential tax hike on dividends next year. the software giant says it is going to pay out three quarters worth of dividend payments ahead of schedule, this month, not in 2013. other companies hoping to spare their shareholders a higher dividend tax include walmart, costco, las vegas sands, and a bunch of others you see here. the biggest single beneficiary of oracle's decision is larry ellison, he'll get $190 million in dividend payments. he'll owe $29 million of that to uncle sam. at today's dividend tax rate of just 15%. that will be a big savings for him if the dividend tax does
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double as it may do next year. the doom and gloom of the fiscal cliff hides an important point about our economy. we play our cards right, america could be headed for another economic renaissance. short-term indicators are looking good. jobs are being created, consumer debt is shrinking. the housing market is making a comeback. forget silver linings, housing has been the golden lining around the economic cloud hanging over the country. mortgage rates are expected to stay low through 2014. home affordability is as good as it it's been in generations. that's going to attract buyers who spent the last few years waiting for prices to bottom out. that's going to help millions of homeowners who currently owe more on their homes than the home is worth. the home prices rising, confidence will return. and longer term prospects also have some real hope in america. we're in the midst of a domestic energy boom that will fuel growth for years to come. advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, you've heard it as fracking, have changed the economics of natural
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gas recovery. that sent prices way down, lower natural gas, by the way, means lower electricity prices, plus america's energy boom is fueling a manufacturing resurgence that is already under way and that can create manufacturing jobs. the government's got to play its cards right. first, it has to get its fiscal house in order. that means washington needs to work now to avoid the threat of a recession, posed by the fiscal cliff. longer term america needs to complement the potential gains with real investment in upgrading its infrastructure. u.s. today gets a d on the roads, bridges and transportation and communication links from the american society of civil engineers. infrastructure investment now might mean an immediate need, but in the longer term, an updated and more efficient infrastructure can help promote prosperity for decades to come. and, finally, we have been hard on congress, haven't we? some congratulations are in order. congress managed not to finish first in a new poll by gallup
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which looked at the least trusted professions in country. members of congress came in second by the way. the least trusted profession in the country, car sales people. nurses had the highest honesty rating of all. i'm ali velshi. that's your money. same time tomorrow. 's 32 minute, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. [ nyquil bottle ] just reading your label. wait...you relieve nasal congestion? sure don't you? [ nyquil bottle ] dude! [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® cold and flu doesn't.
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28 days until higher taxes and punishing federal spending cuts unless congress and the president act so-called fiscal cliff. on the senate floor today, top senate democrat, here he was, harry reid, said the republican counteroffer unveiled yesterday is a serious proposal.
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reid called the offer a nonstarter. his word. but a serious proposal nonetheless. in an interview just today with bloomberg tv, president obama did not reject the gop offer outright. officials have called it a step backward, not worthy of a counteroffer. but, you know, bottom line here, you have two sides they appear to be pretty far apart with no new negotiations happening at least not to our knowledge. so, with me now from capitol hill is representative peter wel welch. democrat from vermont. good to see you. thanks for coming on. >> thank you. >> so let me just pose this one to you. you just heard harry reid, would you agree with harry reid the plan offered yesterday by that house speaker is, quote unquote, a serious plan? >> well, you know, i don't know the details of it. it is $800 billion supposedly in revenues and it is a lot of medicare cuts but not specified. so the details obviously are
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really, really essential. but, you know, the speaker, i think, does in fact want to reach an agreement, objectively he's in a very difficult position. he knows revenues have to go up. the people he represents in the republican conference ran for election on the promise of lowering taxes, lowering revenues, not increasing them. >> on that point, forgive me, congressman, here is what some are calling a compromise from some of the republicans because this is a boehner plan and it does go counter to the republicans, you know, long held position of not raising revenues through the tax system. why is that not a compromise? >> it is. >> you do agree? >> i do agree with that. i think that my view of the speaker is being -- he wants to get to yes on this if he possibly can. what i'm saying is he has got a huge challenge, more difficult on his side than on our side because his folks ran to lower taxes, not raise them. he's going to have to persuade them to raise taxes and that's contrary to what they campaigned
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on. secondly, in order for him to be able to do that, he'll be pushing for medicare cuts unacceptable to the president. and then, third, he's indicated he will not have the debt ceiling be part of these discussions so he can use that as leverage to get more cuts down the road. so these are the practical challenges that he and the president face in these negotiations and it makes me think that the odds are probably better than 50/50 that what will happen is that we'll postpone action on taxes until the first week of january, when, in fact, there will be a senate bill on the floor and we can vote to provide tax cuts for 98% of the people. >> is that then the reason, i want to ask you about it, it would be cuts at that point. then, of course, not raising the taxes, but cuts after january 1st. but, you know, you've said, you made news saying that perhaps that the country needs to go over this fiscal cliff. why do you say that? >> well, it is not -- the preferred action would be for us to get together and reach a deal before january 1st. but i don't think it is going to
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really be possible, particularly on the republican side, for the reasons i just mentioned. also, i think that it is much more important to get a good durable deal. january 5th, january 15th, as opposed to december 15th, that's better than a bad deal before the end of the year. time will tell, but i think the cliff is not a cliff. it is a slope. the most important thing right now, from the president's perspective, is that we get a significant contribution of revenues towards a balanced budget deal. the leverage favors him right now. and you're seeing that in these negotiations, but whether they'll be able to close the deal, the speaker, senator mcconnell and senator reid and the president remains to be seen. >> you talk about leverage. i have to ask, you have said, congressman, democrats have blinked in past negotiations. do you think the president is a good negotiator. >> he's doing great on this. everything he's saying and doing is consistent with what he said in the campaign. what you have now is the president ran on a very explicit
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platform of having taxes go up on the top 2%, above $250,000. he won the election. also, the romney supporters, by better than 50% margin and exit polls, supported that policy. so the president knows he's got the american people behind him. and this is not a debt ceiling situation where we're literally going to default on our debt. we have got this fiscal cliff date, but it is really more of a slope. so i am confident that the president is hanging in there because it makes sense for him to do and i think he's really convinced the american people support him and it is good for the economy. >> okay. congressman peter welch, thank you so much for joining me from the hill. we'll see 28 days to go whether in fact we go over the slope or not. up close look at how servicemen and women train for this. the horrors of war. the role amputees are playing to prepare others for life in combat. don't miss this report.
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[ ding! ] losing your chex mix too easily? time to deploy the boring-potato chip decoy bag. then no one will want to steal the deliciousness. [ male announcer ] with a variety of tastes and textures, only chex mix is a bag of interesting. bp has paid overthe people of bp twenty-threeitment to the gulf., billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years?
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ruchly 2 million people in the united states are amputees. and losing a limb is not only a traumatic experience, it makes finding employment much more difficult. but as cnn's poppy harlow found out, there's a unique opportunity training american men and women in uniform. just a quick warning, some of the images are tough to look at. [ explosion ] >> reporter: on this simulated battlefield, it's hard to determine what's real and what's not. >> we call it hyper realistic. >> reporter: kit lavell served in vietnam. now he prepares thousands of u.s. men and women for combat. >> individuals that are going through the training are not
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expecting to see an amputee. so the shock effect of seeing that happen is priceless. >> the action is fake. but the amputees are real. they're actors with the unique perspective on others would consider a disability. >> it's more of a guilt. i need to share it with people. >> reporter: you think this is a gift? >> it is a gift. >> reporter: heather lost her right leg to cancer when she was just 8. ted and june both lost their left leg in a tragic accident. >> a car came around the corner too fast and hit us. it's the trauma that can change other people's lives, as well as my own. it's become an asset. >> reporter: i went through similar training here recently and it's as real as it gets. it's preparation we do as journalists before we go into a hospital environment.
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when i was working on these amputee actors, it's what made we want to tell their story. >> i've met people that have gone through the training and gone overseas and come back and say that the training helped them. >> really, yeah. those are the best. when they come back and say you made a difference, those are amazing. >> reporter: having amputee actors, what does that add to this? what does it mean? >> complete realism. it actually is more realistic and gives them that firsthand knowledge of what to do in case of a casualty. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: most importantly, it takes away the shock. >> first we have them there and it makes a big difference to work with these people. >> personally i would say thank you. because they're putting out for the military personnel the experience we need to save
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lives. >> you can see it in their eyes that it's affecting them. >> reporter: do they cry? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: you've had servicemen and women in training cry seeing you? >> absolutely. >> reporter: do you cry? >> absolutely. >> reporter: what sit for you? >> it's healing. >> reporter: and it's personal. ted served in the navy for 21 years. >> i look at the men and women and some of them are sons and daughters and fathers and mothers. >> that's someone's child out. there>> reporter: heather's husband also served and she'll never forget the day a three-star general approached her. >> he came up to me and just said thank you. me? >> reporter: was that the moment when you realized the purpose of what you were doing? >> yeah. it's when i realized this isn't just a regular job.
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my goal is to make it someone comes home at night to their families. >> when you go home at night and you know you have the ability to change someone's life, it's priceless. >> reporter: a does of perspective for all of us. it absolutely is. these are amazing individuals and they've overcome the odds. heather morales, the young girl, was told she couldn't do a lot of things probably the training she's doing and having a baby. she's now a proud mother. and june, the other actor, said her proudest moment is when dr. jill biden came and watched the training and thanked her. so just perspective for all of us. >> amazing, amazing, amazing. and it looks so real. >> that's the point. >> thank you. >> thanks for sharing. we are getting word that
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protesters are attacking the political head quarters of the muslim brotherhood in egypt. we'll go to cairo, next. [ male announcer ] red lobster's hitting the streets to tell real people about our new 15 under $15 menu. oh my goodness! oh my gosh, this looks amazing! [ male announcer ] our new maine stays! 15 entrees under $15, seafood, chicken and more! oo! the tilapia with roasted vegetables! i'm actually looking at the wood grilled chicken with portobello wine sauce. that pork chop was great! no more fast food friday's! we're going to go to red lobster. yep. [ male announcer ] come try our new menu and sea food differently! and introducing 7 lunch choices for just $7.99.
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>> >> just in. protesters have attacked the political head quarters of the muslim brotherhood. what's happening in in cairo? >> that happened several hours ago. the political offices of the muslim brotherhood attacked south of cairo. and earlier, for a brief time, about an hour, some tense moments outside the presidential palace. protesters clashed with police. demonstrators started throwing rocks and debris. they breached a barrier and approached the palace. the question was, were things get ugly? would they